Thursday, February 7, 2013

CDC: More Mothers Are Breastfeeding

Across all groups, the percentage of mothers who start and continue
breastfeeding is rising, according to a report released today by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). From 2000 to 2008,
mothers who started breastfeeding increased more than 4 percentage
points. During that same time, the number of mothers still
breastfeeding at six months jumped nearly 10 percentage points, from 35
percent in 2000 to nearly 45 percent in 2008.

In addition to increases among all groups, gaps in breastfeeding rates
between African American and white mothers are narrowing. The gap
narrowed from 24 percentage points in 2000 to 16 percentage points in
2008.

“Breastfeeding is good for the mother and for the infant – and the
striking news here is, hundreds of thousands more babies are being
breastfed than in past years, and this increase has been seen across
most racial and ethnic groups,” said CDC Director Tom Frieden, M.D.,
M.P.H. “Despite these increases, many mothers who want to breastfeed
are still not getting the support they need from hospitals, doctors, or
employers. We must redouble our efforts to support mothers who want to
breastfeed.”

While gaps continue to narrow among groups, the CDC says that more targeted strategies to
increase breastfeeding support for African American mothers are still
needed. To address this, the CDC is currently funding Best-Fed Beginnings,
a project that provides support to 89 hospitals, many serving minority
and low income populations, to improve hospital practices that support
breastfeeding mothers. The CDC has also recently awarded funds to six
state health departments to develop community breastfeeding support
systems in communities of color.

To better understand breastfeeding trends and differences among African
American, white and Hispanic infants born from 2000 to 2008, the CDC
analyzed National Immunization Survey data from 2002–2011. Other key
findings of the report include:

From 2000 to 2008, breastfeeding at
six and twelve months increased significantly among African American,
white and Hispanic infants.

While numbers are rising across all
groups, all mothers need more support to continue breastfeeding since
less than half of mothers are breastfeeding at six months (45 percent)
and less than a quarter of mothers (23 percent) are breastfeeding at
twelve months.

Although rates of breastfeeding at six
months increased by more than 13 percent among African American
mothers, this group still had the lowest rates of breastfeeding
duration, indicating that they still need more, targeted support.